Who Were the Knights Hopitaller?

On February 15, 1113, the reigning Pope of the Catholic Church, Pope Paschal II, issued a Papal Bull titled “Pie Postulatio Voluntatis,” recognizing the Order of Hospitallers, a military order of Catholic knights that had existed in the Holy Land since about 1099.  The order had begun in Jerusalem during the 11^th Century in service of an Amalfitan (established by people from the Italian city-state of Amalfi) hospital that was founded in Jerusalem to see to the medical needs of Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land, part of the Christian Crusades.  Known more formally as The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, the Hospitallers saw themselves as protectors of Christian pilgrims in a very dangerous land teeming with robbers and warring factions.